Chula Vista District 2, October 2021 Newsletter

October 1, 2021

Dear Northwest Chula Vista Neighbors and Friends,

I have some very exciting news to share with you!!

For three years, I have been working to help fix problems caused bythe lack of parking in Northwest Chula Vista, especially around our Norman Park Senior Center, in our downtown, and around our local schools.

For three years, we have shed tears to learn of car accidents, injuries, and deaths due to more and more drivers, driving faster through our historic, small-town neighborhoods, as we become a bigger city.

Three years ago, I met with a company that operated a free door-to-door shuttle service in parts of downtown San Diego. I asked them how much it would cost to make that service available (but even better) right here in Chula Vista.

It was (gulp!) a big number. A million dollars to get the project started and to fund the first year of operation.

Three years ago, this seemed impossible. But I kept talking about it. And asking for help. And discussing the benefits to our city management and staff. And, frankly, praying on it.

And then an amazing partner came forward – the CCDC – Community Congregational Development Corporation – a non-profit created after the sale of the Community Congregational Tower. Chula Vistans (current and former) Laurie Orange, David Hand, Jerry May, Barbara Locci, Nancy and Wayne Holiman, Liz Aguilar, Mike Bishop and Mike Green, who serve on the CCDC board, offered to help make this dream come true!

And then a grant opportunity from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) was announced – up to $1M each for 20 Clean Mobility Option projects in the state of California.

So… Our city applied for the grant and was awarded close to $1M! 

And then the CCDC matched the grant with another $1M, and the result is…

Coming soon, FREE Door-to-Door Electric Shuttle Transportation for seniors in Northwest Chula Vista!!!

FREE rides, on-call, on-demand, within the Northwest Chula Vista service area. For you! For your parents and grandparents. A small fee will be charged for those who aren’t “seniors” but want to use the shuttle.

Let me emphasize that these shuttles will pick you up at your front door, and take you wherever you’d like to go in Northwest Chula Vista!

Your home to the grocery store. Your home to your grandchildren’s school. Your home to the movies, the library, the doctor, the pet groomer, city hall, a nice restaurant, the hair salon, your sister’s home, the Norman Park Senior Center, the mall, the park, a tasting room, anywhere in the Northwest Chula Vista service area and back to your home when you call.

On October 12th, the service area map, hours of operation, and more details will be revealed to the City Council and the General Public. We will also know the age definition of “senior” (hint, I believe it will be 50 and older), and what the nominal fee will be to use the service for everyone who hasn’t reached that golden year as yet.

I’m so excited – this is going to transform how we move about in Northwest Chula Vista. And yes, I will work hard to raise the funds we need to include all of Western Chula Vista and expand the service to all of Chula Vista.

Joe Little did a cute story on this. Watch the video here

Once we get this program going, it will be important to get as many people using it as possible, so that we have data that shows the community and environmental benefit. So stay tuned… And help me get the word out!

Yeah, Chula Vista!! Great things are happening and even greater things lie ahead for us!

Warm regards,

Jill M. Galvez | Chula Vista City Councilmember | District 2, Northwest
276 Fourth Avenue | Chula Vista, CA  | 91910
Phone: 619.691.5177 | Cell: 619.997.1016 | Email:  jmgalvez@chulavistaca.gov

See link for original article.

https://mailchi.mp/a28ab913a166/chula-vista-district-2-october-2021-newsletter-jillgalvez?e=db49688a83

Serving Seniors

On behalf of Serving Seniors, thank you to CCDC for your two generous grants totaling $70,000 for our Senior Nutrition Program. Grant funding supported life-sustaining nutrition and helped to improve the health of low-income seniors living in the South Bay region.

What Your Support Made Possible


For the last 50 years, our Nutrition Program has been the beating heart of our wraparound model, providing congregate and home-delivered meals to seniors across San Diego County.

When COVID-19 shuttered our congregate sites last March, we worked around the clock to transition our existing nutrition clients to home-delivered meals and meet the needs of thousands more seniors requesting services for the first time. Overnight, we began offering to-go meals at the Gary & Mary West Senior Wellness Center and began transitioning all our congregate meal clients to home-delivered meals. Soon we had more than tripled our Home-Delivered Meal Program and launched a new shelf-stable meal option, with boxes primarily prepared by volunteers and delivered directly to seniors’ homes.

Last year, our Senior Nutrition team provided 317,325 meals to 830 low-income seniors in the South Bay region— the most in our 50-year history. This represents a 223% increase in the number of meals served to South Bay clients over the previous fiscal year.

To read this full report, please see the following PDF.

Kudos from Chula Vista City Councilmember Jill M. Galvez

CCDC received the following kudos from Jill M. Galvez | Chula Vista City Councilmember | District 2, Northwest.

• •  Kudos to  • • 

The Community Congregational Development Corporation for awarding $450K in grants for improvements to the Norman Park Senior Center, including lighting above the outdoor fitness equipment, transformation of the old interior fitness center into two multipurpose courts for pickleball, yoga, senior volleyball, and more, and a new bocci ball court to replace the outdoor horseshoe pits. Thank you, CCDC! Stay tuned for next month’s big announcement… To learn more about the CCDC, their mission, and the good work they do for seniors, click here.

Our great city of Chula Vista for being one of two cities in the County that were awarded $1M each for green transit projects from the California Air Resources Board. Click here for a sneak peek! And stay tuned for next month’s big announcement of what this means for seniors, businesses, and the rest of us in Northwest Chula Vista (a project I have been focused on for over two years will finally come to fruition!)

To read the full article, click here.

Tech for Seniors

Like other older adults, Jeanie Lemaire, 70, didn’t grow up using computers and mobile phones. She recognizes the value of technology and has made some attempts to learn, but beyond making a phone call or sending a text on her smartphone, Jeanie feels a bit lost. “People say ‘just experiment,’ but it is not in my nature,” she explains. “I am a people person but want to be able to participate in the world.”

Recently, Jeanie was excited to learn that a new pilot project, Tech for Seniors, would be offered at her senior housing complex, The Salvation Army Silvercrest in Chula Vista. This six-month grant project aims to reduce social isolation and loneliness among lower income older adults in South Bay through the use of technology instruction. The project funded by Community Congregational Development Corporation and is a partnership between the South County Action Network (SoCAN), the health and technology organization Sarsis, and two low-income senior apartment complexes in the South Bay.

To read this full article by Kim Gallo, please see the following PDF.

Casa Familiar Report December 2020

Overview

CASA FAMILIAR

A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY


CCDC Grant Report

Emergency Senior Support Services July-September 2020

After Casa Familiar (Casa) received an initial small grant of $1,000 in May 2020 to support emergency services for seniors during the pandemic, a second round of funding was awarded from Community Congregational Development Corporation (CCDC) in July 2020 in the amount of $26,352. Over half of this second round of funding ($15,000) was earmarked for direct financial assistance to seniors having difficulty paying bills due to the pandemic. The rest of the funding went to continue providing emergency services to seniors in the community including food assistance and connection to local resources.

Outcomes

This second round of funding from CCDC made it possible for Casa to provide the following emergency senior support services between July-October 2020.

Food assistance: Weekly hot meal delivery to seniors in San Ysidro

  • 720 meals were provided to seniors over the course of 12 weeks, 60 meals per week
  • Recipients included formerly homeless seniors who recently moved into the newly built San Ysidro Senior Village permanent supportive housing complex and low-income seniors living in the surrounding neighborhood.
  • Meals were provided by local, family-owned restaurant, El Rincon. They were traditional Mexican dishes, prepared with the health of our seniors in mind. Funding helped support this small business, whose generosity started and sustains the meal delivery.
  • Casa staff deliver the weekly meals door-to-door and use the opportunity to remain connected with our senior clients and check-in on their well-being

Connection to local resources: Delivery of printed newsletters

  • 3 editions of Casa’s bilingual printed newsletters were created to help provide
    digitally disconnected seniors with information about available local resources
  • A total of 1,260 newsletters were distributed
  • 180 newsletters were hand delivered to seniors along with their weekly meals
  • 680 newsletters were mailed out to seniors living the South Bay registered in Casa’s client database
  • 400 newsletters were given out during local food distribution events
  • See the English side of the newsletters for July, August, and September below.
    Newsletters are printed in large format on 11”x17” paper for easy reading

Rental/Utility Assistance: Direct payments to help seniors in need pay outstanding bills
Financial assistance was provided to a total of 34 low-income seniors living in the South Bay including
o Rent assistance for 21 individuals
o SDGE past-due bill payment assistance for 4 individuals
o Car repair assistance for 3 individuals
o Auto loan payment assistance for 2 individuals
o Medical bill assistance, hearing aid purchase, credit payoff assistance and food expense assistance each for 1 individual

  • Along with the direct financial assistance, individuals received help with budgeting and financial coaching from Casa’s Financial Opportunities Center
  • A total of $15,000 was given out in direct financial assistance thanks to CCDC
  • Conclusion
    With this second round of funding from CCDC, Casa was able to support over 1,000 seniors in the South Bay with either food, connection to resources, or direct financial assistance. We were also able to give back to CCDC by helping get our senior program participants to fill out CCDC’s needs survey.
    The budgeted funding for food assistance ran out at the end of September. Since that time we have continued delivering weekly meals, but had to decrease from 60 to 20 individuals. The local restaurant, El Rincon, is donating the meals and Casa is donating the staff time through the end of the calendar year. Casa continues to produce bilingual newsletters on a semi-monthly basis. Newsletters are distributed at food banks and throughout the community, but not mailed out to individual households. Lastly, Casa continues to support low-income seniors with financial coaching, applications for government benefits, and connection to financial assistance whenever available.
    We thank CCDC for their support of our programs and the seniors in our community. In 2021, Casa looks forward to continuing to support seniors living in isolation through innovative and culturally sensitive programming. This will include starting up as the new on-site service provider at two low-income senior apartment complexes in San Ysidro with a total of 160 units. We hope to continue collaborating with CCDC to provide much needed programs to seniors in our community.

Casa Familiar

Curious about CCDC impact?  The original article can be found on the Casa Familiar’s website.


Each week, this San Ysidro restaurant feeds 60 neighbors affected by the pandemic

Silvana Alanís, 43, owner of El Rincón restaurant in San Ysidro.

(Alexandra Mendoza – U-T)

Casa Familiar’s program allows to take hot meals to seniors

Silvana Alanís knows what it is like not to have food on the table. That is why she wants to make sure that in these difficult times, her neighbors don’t go through that.

Every Friday, Alanís, the owner of El Rincón restaurant in San Ysidro prepares, along with her team, 60 meals that are distributed mostly to seniors as part of a program of the community organization Casa Familiar.

Thanks to a fund from the Community Congregational Development Corp., about $15,000 was allocated to help individuals who need support to pay their rent, mortgage, or utilities, and nearly $11,500 to a weekly hot meal delivery program for seniors in San Ysidro.

The program started during the beginning of the pandemic, when Lisa Cuestas, executive director of Casa Familiar, heard of a COVID-19-positive single mother who was living alone and had run out of food. The Casa Familiar team prepared meals with what they had at home with the intention of dropping it off at the woman’s front door.

Someone from the team went to the El Rincón restaurant to buy soup and when Silvana heard the story she immediately offered to help, even if she did not get paid. That’s how the collaboration began.

Casa Familiar identified more people who needed assistance, and Silvana’s restaurant helped with the meals. It wasn’t until they received funding that the groups were able to provide food on a recurring basis. Now the plan is to continue for at least three more months.

Most of the meals are distributed to residents at the San Ysidro Senior Village, a new permanent supportive housing complex for formerly homeless seniors.

Silvana is willing to help in any way she can.

“Early in my life I went through hardship, and today I feel the need to help others,” said Alanís, a Mexican immigrant who bought the restaurant three years ago.

A native of Guadalajara, Jalisco, she came with her family to the U.S. almost 30 years ago. They immigrated at the invitation of a family friend who gave them shelter, but after a week, they were forced to look for another place since they were a family of eight.

To make a living they would get up early every morning and collect cans from garbage bins around town just to gather enough money to buy the ingredients needed to make tamales and sell them every afternoon. That was their daily life for several years.

“I remember that we were happy if we earned enough to have a shrimp Maruchan soup,” she said.

Eventually, her family found financial stability and later she got married, worked in different ventures selling cellphones and working in a money transfer business, until three years ago when Silvana and her family opened their restaurant in San Ysidro.

Casa Familiar workers take food from the restaurant for delivery to those in need.

(Alexandra Mendoza – U-T )

When the health emergency left many people out of work, she knew she had to do something to help her neighborhood. “Right now, we are all in survival mode. People need to eat and pay rent, and then we can worry about the rest.”

Veronica Flores, 44, is one of the beneficiaries. She learned about the program since she called the county’s 211 line in search of pantry items.

Her husband, a construction worker recently diagnosed with diabetes, lost some jobs due to the pandemic.

For now, they rely on their savings and some jobs that come up sporadically. “The little I earn is for rent or medical bills,” said her husband, Valentin Benitez.

In times of hardship it gives them peace of mind to know that at least every Friday they receive food and some groceries. “It helps a lot. It’s like a miracle,”Flores said.

For Teresa Gallegos, 80, the program is a “blessing” since for her safety she has not left her apartment in months.

During the week, she prepares her food with the groceries her family brings to her, but on Friday she takes a break with the meal from Casa Familiar.

“I feel happy, and I am very grateful for what they are doing for us.”